Archive for July 2009

Way back in 2004, when I was finishing up my Master’s year at Queen’s University, I did a mashup reviewof two books, John Barnes’ science fiction novel The Merchants of Souls and Alison Lansberg’s Prosthetic Memory. What is “prosthetic memory?

“By prosthetic memories I mean memories which do not come from a person’s lived experience in any strict sense.”[1] When someone views, for example, a film or television program, they have a memory of the narrative events which transpired without actually having experienced those events in any manner. In her book Prosthetic Culture: Photography, Memory and Identity, Celia Lury examines the specific role that photography plays in the prosthetic memories produced by mass culture. Everyone remembers the horrific events of September 11, 2001, but many of those who recall that day did not witness the event with their own eyes. The media has “fundamentally alter[ed] our notion of what counts as experience”[2] precisely because it “bring[s] the texture and contours of prosthetic memory into dramatic relief.”[3] Media technologies make it possible for human beings to possess, like the replicants of Blade Runner, vivid memories of experiences that are not their own.

She argues that prosthetic memories are transmissible in any manner of fashions, that “the memories forged in response to modernity’s ruptures do not belong exclusively to a particular group; that is, memories of the Holocaust do not belong only to Jews, nor do memories of slavery belong solely to African Americans. Through the technologies of mass culture, it becomes possible for these memories to be acquired by anyone, regardless of skin color, ethnic background, or biology. Prosthetic memories are transportable and therefore challenge more traditional forms of memory that are premises on claims of authenticity, “heritage,” and ownership. This new form of memory is neither inherently progressive nor inherently reactionary, but it is powerful (2-3).”

This sort of phenomenon has arguably been recognized for a while, in Ernest Renan’s Qu’est-ce qu’une nation when he argued that nations were united by memories shared in common. Things are remembered by a community’s members, things are forgotten, both define the membership, the in crowd and the outsiders. This sort of belief, in John Barnes’ universe, is something actively combated since group memories and identities triggered horrors on Earth–including Japan’s vitrification, say–and the export of ethnic separatists to the stars, on the grounds that those sorts of identities, associated with groups and transmitted ultimately by individuals, are destabilizing.

This week I think that I’ve been concerned especially with identity and the transmission of cultural elements–text, photos, interactions–between people. Maybe it’s because I’m more aware of these identities at different scales, maybe it’s because I’m interested in the ways in which people learn from each other and transmit things, by the ways in which too much is communicated as well as too little.

Steps taken to curb overfishing are finally showing signs of success in many of the world’s fisheries, according to a report released Thursday, but the news isn’t so good in Eastern Canada, where there have been “dramatic stock collapses.”

The assessment report, conducted by an international team of fishery scientists, suggests that five of the 10 large marine ecosystems examined are showing improvement. None is in Canada.

Recovery rates in Eastern Canada are slow or non-existent, said Boris Worm of Halifax’s Dalhousie University, a co-author of the report.

Thanks to Facebook’s Vanessa for linking to this article by Michelle Collins in Embassy suggesting that the Harper government is subtly changing its wording of various official documents so as to–perhaps–evade Canada’s international responsibilities.

In an email communication obtained by Embassy, staff at the Department of Foreign Affairs express concern about frequent changes being made to commonly used terms, particularly where such changes are not consistent with accepted Canadian policy, and which may be carried out to minimize international obligations on issues as complex as the Omar Khadr case.

Among the changes identified are the excising of the word “humanitarian” from each reference to “international humanitarian law,” replacing the term “gender equality” with “equality of men and women”, switching focus from justice for victims of sexual violence to prevention of sexual violence, and replacing the phrase “child soldiers” with “children in armed conflict.”

For many observers of Canada’s foreign policy, these are distressing language changes that water down many of the very international human rights obligations Canada once fought to have adopted in conventions at the United Nations. As one source said, in the international world of diplomacy—where officials often focus detailed discussions on the language included in documents and policies—wording makes a big difference.

Indeed, the email states “It is often not entirely clear to us why advisers are making such changes, and whether they have a full grasp of the potential impact on [Canadian] policy in asking for changes to phrases and concepts that have been accepted internationally and used for some time.”

Contra the statements of my Grade 7 French teacher who gave me a tarot card reading in Kingston a dozen years later, I’ve never been interested in dinosaurs very much. Brent Trent’s article at Strange Horizons raises an interesting prospect: What if a dinosaur species ascended to sentience before the K-T impact?

The hidden hunters are livid green, with dark stripes along their backs. They are bipedal, standing eight feet tall, and their four-fingered scaly hands grasp cruel spears. Unknown descendants of what future primates will call the Saurornithoides, a species of Troontid, they are the warrior caste of their cave-dwelling tribe. Eggs will be hatching soon, and there will be many hungry mouths to feed. The hunt is essential.

The horned behemoth ahead of them can’t comprehend what’s about to happen. For millions of years it has understood that predators may spring out of the nearby woods, and when this happens you run away. It doesn’t realize that ferocious intelligence has bloomed in the late Cretaceous.

The hunters wait, keeping low in the tall grass. Suddenly a blood-chilling shriek erupts on the far side of the Monoclonius herd. A collaborating group of hunters is enacting the first phase of the plan, as they spring from concealment and charge wildly at the massive animals. Predictably, the surprise startles the herd into a panicked run.

The young Monoclonius runs at the hunters without knowing they’re there. Suddenly their spears erupt from the grasses, accompanied by wild gesticulations and shrieking scaly throats. The terrified Monoclonius dashes to the side and straight into the trap.

Just a few strides in and the ground collapses. The animal’s weighty bulk impales it on numerous pikes set the day before. As it bleeds to death at the bottom of the pit, the last thing it sees is a ring of snake-like heads crowding the top, hissing with victory.

The whole thing is a provocative read, not least because Trent concludes that the above scene could well have happened.

The Bloor-Lansdowne blog covers the celebration surrounding the reopening of the Bloor-Lansdowne Library.

Centauri Dreams covers the possibility that life in the Galaxy might emerge in great, irregular waves as punctuated evolution would hold, reports more signs that water may exist on/inside Enceladus, and suggests that the threat from comets to Earth may be quite exaggerated.

Demography Matters co-blogger Aslak Berg points out that better metrics indicate that European fertility is substantially higher than TFRs would indicate.

Edward Lucas reviews a new book by the admittedly problematic Andrew Roberts that makes the point that Germany’s loss of the Second World War has everything to do with Naziism and Hitler’s erratic nature.

A Fistful of Euros covers the news about the expansion of new liberal visa rules to only some Yugoslav successor states, and reports on the growing irrelevance of Kosovar Albanians and Serbians to each other.

Language Hat reports on recent neurological discoveries suggesting that brain damage is more likely to damage knowledge of a second language than of a first.

Marginal Revolution links to an article claiming that China’s also suffering a bubble economy, with commenters disputing the accuracy of foreign reports.

Spacing Toronto’s Jake Schabas reports about a charming secret garden on Eglinton Street and touches on the history of market gardens.

Slap Upside the Head lets us know that a Saskatchewan public marriage commissioner who claimed that he didn’t have to perform gay marriages because of his religion lost his case.

I took a photo of this black squirrel running about a rock garden on the grounds of the University of Toronto’s St. Michael’s College back at the beginning of May. I’m astounded that I was able to capture it, putting it in the center, even.